in the meantime

we'll stop shopping at Whole Foods and start shopping at Trader Joe's.

we'll cancel HBO and Showtime.

the Cutie Q won't go to his after school program.

we'll drink less {sob}.

we'll have the most stripped down version of Christmas I've yet to experience and it will be simple and sweet.

we'll thank our lucky stars that our boys are healthy and strong and happy - no, joyful.

we'll stop buying toy cars from every damn store we walk into (so that joyful thing may subside a bit.)

we'll be thankful that we love to read almost as much as we love to breathe and that we have access to a great public library system.

I'll stop trolling etsy.

we'll take stock and attempt to appreciate all that we have.

we'll stretch and juggle to hold onto a house that we've work so hard for and we'll remind ourselves that in the end, it's just a house. We are each others home.

this is the first of many list that I'll write to remind myself how fortunate I am. In the midst of being scared as we face the fact that our double-income status just got brutally halved yesterday. A beloved job, a necessary job, but a job none the less. Not a life. This is what I'll do in the meantime to keep from going crazy.

some new flavor

I seriously love it when the author of a book includes details about what the characters are eating, cooking, ordering in a resturant. I'm constantly looking for kitchen inspiration around what to cook for dinner or put in my kids lunch. I like people who appreciate food. We've started writing out weekly menus on Saturday mornings before grocery shopping in an attempt to avoid the nightly stop at Whole Foods, so I thought I'd begin to post them here. I'll link to specific recipes whenever I use them and will try and include details when I'm flying by the seat of my pants. Our approach is pretty easy, usually organic or local. Sundays usually bring something we can eat again in some form during the week. I don't love leftovers, but feel particularly resourceful when we can turn some portion of a meal into another meal. Pot roast becomes stew. Chicken breasts turn into tortilla soup. I'm also trying to eat meat sparely. Not just putting it on the menu out of habit or tradition, but because some forms of meat (hello! bacon) are too good to skip altogether.

SAT :: lasagna (we had MAS' homemade mushroom and olive tomato sauce in the freezer and I added spicy Italian sasuage and spinach)

SUN :: turkey meatball sliders and salad (the only salad I'm making these days is arugula, dried cherries and toasted walnuts). I used the Little Owl slider recipe mostly for the sauce ideas (minus the fennel). The meatballs were made by MAS and were pretty straight forward: ground turkey, egg, basil, a little red wine, some bread crumbs pulled from a loaf of sourdough and an egg.

MON :: leftover split pea soup (from last week) and bread and cheese

TUES :: lemon arugula pasta. I use orecchiette pasta and skip the broccoli. I also substitute whole milk or half and half for the cream that's called for and throw in a handful of bacon (hello! bacon) or pancetta. We're huge fans of asiago over parmesan.

WED :: leftover lasagna and salad

THURS :: flank steak with lime dipping sauce and broccoli salad. The lime sauce is the juice of three limes, salt and pepper and a pinch of sugar and I'm skipping the ginger in the broccoli salad.

FRI :: eat out.

SAT :: butterfly lamb (Trader Joe's), cucumber, sour cream and red wine vinegar salad and orzo/arugula/kalmata olives tossed together.

bittersweet

Today is bittersweet for me with the passage of Proposition 8 in California which amends the CA Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. As someone who lives her life honestly and bravely as an example for my children that their family is just as genuine as every other kid they know - this is a horrible manipulation of a governmental process that I truly believe in and work in everyday. I've been a campaign fundraiser, a PAC staffer and field representative for a US Senator and now, a city employee. That's it. I've only worked in government since my parents (a public school teacher and a nurse) finished paying for my very expensive liberal arts college education.

I'm tempted to be really pissed off, but instead I'm going to channel my new president (yay! seriously, thank God) and realize that it's always easier to choose love over hate (am hoping that the 52% of Californians who voted for Prop. 8 will see their way to this someday too).

And now I'll leave it to the legal scholars to figure out if my marriage is stickable or not. In the meantime we feel really lucky in so many ways and nothing really changes for us beyond hurt feelings. Our lives continue very much along the same lines as many of yours. We're a young, busy family who seeks to do our very best for each other - and that's all still true today and everyday.